Tata Steel on Monday began the formal process of selling its British steel company

India Ratings and Research on Tuesday placed Tata Steel on rating watch following the latter's announcement of restructuring its loss-making European operations, including divestment of its UK businesses.

"India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has placed Tata Steel Ltd's Long-Term Issuer Rating of 'IND AA' on Rating Watch Evolving (RWE). The outlook was Negative," the Fitch group company said.

"The agency has also placed the ratings on all of the company's debt instruments on RWE," the agency said, indicating thereby, that the ratings could be either upgraded, downgraded or affirmed.

"While cutting down losses by curtailing overseas operations would be a credit positive for TSL, the uncertain timelines associated with this goal could delay the expected recovery in its credit profile.

"The extent to which the UK businesses will be divested, the timeline over which this is achieved, the amount realised from such divestiture, the amount by which debt is reduced and deleveraging achieved will be key factors for determining whether any change in the ratings is warranted," it added.

Tata Steel on Monday began the formal process of selling its British steel company, announcing an agreement to sell its long products Europe business to investment firm Greybull Capital for a "nominal" consideration. The business employs 4,800 people -- 4,400 in Britain and 400 in France.

"The deal will be completed once a number of outstanding conditions have been resolved, including transfer of contracts, certain government approvals and the satisfactory completion of financing arrangements," Tata Steel said in a statement in London.

"Under these current challenging conditions in Europe with soaring levels of imports from China, we are happy Tata Steel UK and Greybull Capital have entered the final stage of completion of the sale of shareholding in long steel UK," said Hans Fischer, chief executive for Tata Europe.

Having suffered nearly $3 billion in losses on its UK operations, Tata Steel had said this month that it will explore options to put its entire portfolio there up for sale, some 10 years after it forayed into Europe by acquiring the Anglo-Dutch Corus for over $8.1 billion.

Ind-Ra said the rating approach factors in a one notch uplift for the company's strong operational and strategic linkages with the Tata Group, adding the sale of its UK businesses would enable the company to reduce losses substantially.

The business environment in the 2016 financial year continued to be aggravated by large scale imports of steel from Russia and China, it said.

The financial profile of the company has weakened and it essentially stems from the fall in realisations in both domestic and European operations, due to a weak demand together with large global overcapacity overhang, leading to a high level of cheap imports into India as well as Europe, it added.

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IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore said the monsoon would be 6% above normal this year after two years of deficient rainfall

India will get a more than normal monsoon this year, the India Meteorological Department announced on Tuesday.

IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore said the monsoon would be 6 percent above normal this year after two years of deficient rainfall. It was 14 percent less last year.

"An above normal monsoon is expected," Rathore told the media. "By and large the monsoon will be equitably distributed.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

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Under the plans all multinational companies with a turnover greater than 750 million euros would be obliged to meet tougher standards on public disclosure

Tax avoidance by multinational corporations will be forced into the open under proposals to be unveiled by European regulators on Tuesday following the Panama Papers revelations.

The European Commission will put forward legislation requiring large multinationals operating in Europe to disclose profits earned and taxes paid in each of the EU’s 28 member states, as well as fiscal havens, The Guardian reported.

All large companies trading in Europe, including subsidiaries of non-European businesses, would have to publish how much tax they pay outside the EU, including detailed country-by-country information on their finances in tax havens.

The commission was already working on measures to force international companies to disclose their earnings and tax bills in the EU. Following the leak of 11.5 million files exposing the tax secrets of the global elite, officials have toughened up their plans to include tax havens.

Lord Hill, the European commissioner in charge of financial services, confirmed on Monday that the proposals were being extended to tax havens, in response to the public outcry over the revelations in the Panama papers.

The massive data leak had “shifted the public mood” and it was sensible to reflect that in the proposals, he said.

The original proposals were drawn up after public outcry over large corporations, such as Apple and Starbucks, paying little tax despite earning healthy profits. The EU loses up to 70 billion euros a year through corporate tax avoidance, according to the European parliament.

Under the plans all multinational companies with a turnover greater than 750 million euros would be obliged to meet tougher standards on public disclosure.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.